Theater: 'Last Five Years' tells timeless story of heartbreak

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

Thursday

Apr 26, 2018 at 3:10 PMMay 3, 2018 at 10:33 AM

When the thrill of romance ends with the sadness of divorce, the parted couple will tell different stories of what went wrong. The musical “The Last Five Years” has a particularly poignant, interesting approach to “he said/she said.”

In this kick-off production of the Priscilla Beach Theatre 2018 season, Cathy Hyatt tells the story of her five-year relationship with Jamie Wellerstein from its finish to its start, while he tells the story from beginning to end. The 20-something-year-old New York City lovers in this two-person musical are on stage the entire time, but interact only during their wedding, mid-way through the one-act show.

“It’s a unique approach that shows two sides and lets the audience look at the big picture,” said director Chris Armbrister. “Both make big mistakes and neither is 100 percent at fault.”

This show is sad, wise, and sometimes funny, revealing the ways people who truly love each other can irrevocably disappoint and hurt each other. Composer and musician Jason Robert Brown expresses this with songs that are mostly pop-rock, but also blues, Latin and Klezmer influenced. The accompaniment of violin, cello, upright bass and keyboard is beautiful and emotionally resonate.

“The Last Five Years” also reveals the stress couples can face when each person pursues a career in the arts, but only one is successful. Jamie resents what he views as Cathy holding him back, and she is upset by what she feels is his preference for his work and female fan adulation over her.

“Jamie (a fiction writer) is very driven and he’s one of the lucky ones who early on makes it big,” said Armbrister, artistic director of Stagedoor Manor performing arts program in upstate New York. “Whereas Cathy (an actress) struggles and, though she’s happy for him, experiences insecurities and jealousy.”

In a particularly moving song she sings when he visits her at summer stock in Ohio on her birthday, she starts hopeful that he will be there for her, but ends deeply wounded when he isn’t. It’s a long way from the wedding song “The Next Ten Minutes,” where Jamie sings “So many lives I want to share with you/I’ll never be complete until I do” and Cathy sings “I don’t know why people run/I don’t know why things fall through/I don’t know how anyone survives in this life without someone like you.”

“The Last Five Years” ran off-Broadway in 2002 and the cast album is popular among fans of contemporary musical theatre. Brown has won Tony Awards for the music for “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Parade.” A 2015 film version starred Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. In the PBT production, Brendan Duquette of North Attleboro is Jamie, and Kathryn Kliger of Orlando is Cathy.

The stage is in a restored 19th century barn where actors performed when Priscilla Beach Theatre was one of the most successful summer stock venues in the mid-1900s, featuring Paul Newman and Rob Reiner. Since the 2015 restoration, the 240-seat theater has expanded its offerings to six shows a season. The remaining five are “The Drowsy Chaperone," June 8-18; "Guys & Dolls," July 5-21; "Bye Bye Birdie," Aug. 2-18; "Damn Yankees," Sept. 7-15; and "Dames at Sea," Oct. 12-20.